This map and many others included among their marginalia
(ca. 1679–1733) in London in 1710 to sell maps, and after its
images of the celestial hemispheres, with attractive delineations
dissolution three years later, Willdey kept the business. George
of the constellations and zodiacal symbols (plates 15 and 28).
Willdey has been considered “the most prolific advertiser for items
But Reiner Ottens’s star charts of the northern and southern
of public science,” and his ads eventually reached his maps (fig.
skies included in his Atlas Maior cum Generales Omnium Totius
11). He had H. Terrason (fl. 1713–1717) design and engrave all the
Orbis Regnorum … (Amsterdam: n.p., ca. 1740) were intended
commodities sold in “The Great Toy Shop next the Dog Tavern in
in origin, and still are, “as a feast for the eye.” The constellations
Ludgate Street,” not far from St. Paul’s cathedral in London, which
are elaborately presented as the classical figures of antiquity.
can be read in the cartouche. These artifacts included complex
Although these two maps did not have pretensions to scientific
and expensive instruments such as telescopes, a clock, a globe, an
precision, once more the scientific interest was shifted to the
armillary sphere, compasses, a gun, a microscope, and a barometer,
margins, specifically to the corners, where illustrations depict the
and lesser manufactures such as scissors, knives, buckles, monocles,
most important observatories where the advances in astronomy
spectacles, tweezers, and razors. The meaning of these images
were relegated. The celestial map of the austral sky shows four
was also inscribed across the map: “These and many other usefull
European observatories (clockwise): Greenwich, the Round Tower
Instruments and Curiositys are made to the Utmost Perfection and
in Copenhagen, Kassel, and Berlin (plate 33).
Sold wholesale or Retaile by George Willdey.” The map itself was
In sum, maps are a world of knowledge not only in
one of them, both a commodity and a useful and curious instrument.
their geographical essence, but as encyclopedias of human
understanding of the world—sometimes updated, other times
obsolete. And this scientific appearance of cartography was
a key selling point. In fact, those lavish ornaments along the
borders were a main attraction for sales, and the most obvious
proof that the margins of maps were used to advertise and sell
these commodities.
That is the case in the business operated by George Willdey
(ca. 1676–1737), an optical instrument fabricator, mapmaker,
and toy seller who formed a partnership with Charles Price
28